9 volunteers from 5 countries restorеd the rakia house in Bela Rechka in May 2008. Radmila Mladenova collected their stories and experiences. You can read them here.
This is the first social project of New Culture Foundation in the village. The idea goes to Herbert Heuss. Here you can read his reflection on the process of work.
The book will be published in 2009.

Rakia, Volunteers – what’s that?
Herbert Heuss

The Rakia House idea was born while strolling up and down the village. Than, I learnt the story of this house, how it has been for ages one of the meeting points for the people, not only during the rakia roasting season, the place neatly settled near the water in one of the green spots but not neatly any more – the kazan, heart of the rakia making, has been stolen and the house demolished. The idea was simple: to rebuild the house and by that giving back this social space to the people in Bela Rechka.

Fortunately, the International Bauorden* , a volunteers’ organisation based in Germany, supported the idea, both with sending young European volunteers, and a small grant for construction materials. The Bauorden is a significant example for volunteers’ work in Western Europe. For more than 55 years now, the Bauorden sends volunteers all over Europe supporting social projects. And indeed, the volunteers not only spend their holidays; they even pay their travel expenses by themselves. The volunteers want to help directly, want to meet others from all over Europe (and not only Europe), without borders of race, religion, ideology. Quite a difference to the past volunteers’ experience in the Eastern European countries, and something to explore for young people, now.

The Rakia House Project marked a new step in the local development, too. For the first time, after many astonishing cultural events in the village, here was a project with a direct social impact. The production of Rakia is in itself a social event; however, in this rural area it is one of the few income generating activities local people traditionally are bearing. Our volunteers’ contribution in this field opened up new perspectives for the community, and the immediate environs. New ideas, from activities in the nearby Roma neighbourhood school to the local Cultural Centre (the former Chitalishte) emerged in the discussions and talks after our project finalised. For the Nova Cultura Foundation, such socio-cultural activities became a new field to be explored, too.

This booklet presents the eight days of the Rakia House reconstruction, and the team of volunteers. Many more people contributed during the whole process: Mitko, who not only added to the scraffitti decorating the house but also cared for constant water supplies; Niki, who was lifting the spirit by beans and vegetables; or Vasko, who provided all necessary tools and materials (and fine rakia as well). And this booklet reflects our various experiences volunteering in Bulgaria. For me, an ever surprising thing is the self-organisation of volunteer groups, where everybody finds her or his place and contributes to the whole reconstruction process.

However, we have to admit that there was still work to do: water supplies and electricity needed to be connected; something the local community had to do in order to make use of the kazan. Already the water is running, and we look forward to September, when the Rakia season starts – and maybe to meeting some of our volunteers again, degusting some results.

layout Raycho Stanev


*There are various independent branches of the Internationale Bauorden in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium &ct. Volunteers from any country can check for projects and camps and apply for participation on their websites. See for example www.bauorden.de .
Lately, the Bauorden partnered with the Bulgarian NGO FAR – Association for Democratic Education.
“St. St. Kyrill and Methodius” Str. 37, et. 1, Office 2, 8000 Bourgas /Bulgaria, Tel./Fax: +359 56 821585, e-mail: far_bs@2plus.bg. Contact person is Violetta Kyoseva.

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